Westside – Rousay Remembered

Digital Archaeology & Heritage resource pack

Max Fletcher — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 15:16:55 +0000

Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Digital Archaeology and Heritage Resource Pack Digital Archaeology and Heritage resource pack The Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust has teamed up with the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Archaeology Institute to support islanders during and beyond the Covid-19 Pandemic. Fieldwork activities on Rousay in 2020 (e.g.

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Rousay Free Concert

Max Fletcher — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 17:23:21 +0000

I found the photo below in Tommy Gibson’s collection, noting how odd it was to see a lady sitting on a roof playing the banjo! Written on the back was the following: General Burroughs with his guests at Lows House, Westness, Rousay. A few days later I spent a while in the Library & Archive in Kirkwall, and whilst turning the pages of Burroughs’ collection of newspaper cuttings I came across one…

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Westness Plane Crash

Max Fletcher — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:47:00 +0000

Highland Airways plane crash at Westness, September 1935. Piloted by John Rae and carrying five passengers, the Highland Airways de Havilland DH.84 Dragon crashed on its approach to the Trumland airfield east of Westness on Rousay. The pilot’s head went through the windscreen and the passengers were all thrown from their seats as the plane came to rest against trees and a high wall…

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Westness House – part 2

Max Fletcher — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:25:49 +0000

TRAILS, TRAILL-BURROUGHS, MIDDLEMORE On the south-west side of Rousay, overlooking Eynhallow Sound from its sheltered position in a little copse of wind-blown trees, is the old mansion house of Westness. The shore below it – or somewhere not far away – was the scene of that dramatic kidnapping at which Sweyn Asleifsson simplified a political scene of some complexity by kidnapping the…

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Westness House

Max Fletcher — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 14:15:47 +0000

The following was written in 1987 by Helen Firth, who lived at Westness with her husband John between 1952 and 1987 The Mansion House of Westness was formerly one of the homes of the Traill family, who probably came from Fife in the service of the Stewart Earls, and were rewarded with houses and lands in many of the islands. In the middle of the 18th century…

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The Last of the Lairds

Max Fletcher — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:52:37 +0000

This is a transcription of a BBC Radio Orkney programme, recorded on May 27th 1987, in which presenter Kath Gourlay visited both Westness House and Trumland House in Rousay. Her guide was Mrs Helen Firth, who related the history of the two houses. [Mrs Firth spoke first] – “Well, the mansion house of Westness was formerly the home of a member of the Traill family and we think that the…

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Westness Farm

Max Fletcher — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 10:30:52 +0000

According to the census of 1851 a building at Westness farm was occupied by 29-year-old farm labourer George McLeod from Halkirk and his five-year-old son George. Also there were unmarried house servant Margaret Louttit (28), and farm servants Janet Gibson (23) and Mary McKinlay (17), both of whom were also unmarried. In the mid-19th century Westness Farm covered 1,200 acres of land…

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Picts and Vikings at Westness

Max Fletcher — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 17:40:21 +0000

The Knowe and the Bay of Swandro lie south of the old houses of Skaill on Rousay’s Westside. Nearby, in 1826, a Viking sword was turned up by a plough near where a shield boss had been previously found. The sword, now preserved in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, has been recognised by Norse antiquaries as of a type dating from 800 to 850 A.D. The ruins of a Norse farmstead lie…

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Scar, Gue, & Brigsend

Max Fletcher — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 15:28:43 +0000

Scar was the name of two farm servant’s cottages high up on the hill above Westness. In 1851, Scar 1 was occupied by 77-year-old agricultural labourer Drummond Louttit, his wife Betsy Flaws, who was 74 years of age, and their 35-year-old daughter Isabella. Their son John and his family lived at Scar 2. Born on December 21st 1818, John, who was also an agricultural labourer, married Jane Wilson of…

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Mounthooly, Blowhigh, Hillycliff

Max Fletcher — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 14:28:39 +0000

Mounthooly, on the southern slopes of Cat Hill above Westness and close to Blowhigh, was occupied in the mid-1800s by farm labourer Alexander Johnston and his wife Isabella. Alexander was born in Birsay in 1799 and Isabella was born in Stromness in 1788. The census of 1861 reveals that Alexander and Isabella had moved down the hill to Gue, Mounthooly then being occupied by Mary Reid…

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